Acting under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1979.

The story of King George VI of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, his impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it.

Storyline

Over a thirty-six hour period in Los Angeles, a handful of disparate people's lives intertwine as they deal with the tense race relations that belie life in the city. Among the players are: the Caucasian district attorney, who uses race as a political card; his Caucasian wife, who, having recently been carjacked by two black men, believes that her stereotypical views of non-whites is justified and cannot be considered racism; the two black carjackers who use their race both to their advantage and as an excuse; partnered Caucasian police constables, one who is a racist and uses his authority to harass non-whites, and the other who hates his partner because of those racist views, but who may have the same underlying values in his subconscious; a black film director and his black wife, who believes her husband doesn't support their black background enough, especially in light of an incident with the racist white cop; partnered police detectives and sometimes lovers, one Hispanic female ... Written by
Huggo

Technical Specs

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Annie Proulx, author of Brokeback Mountain (2005), wrote a strong polemic against this movie in the British newspaper "The Guardian," venting her disgust and disappointment that her film was beaten by Paul Haggis' at the Oscars, one of the Academy's more controversial decisions in years. See more »

Goofs

When Cameron pulls over to the street corner to let Anthony out of the car (after their run-in with the police,) you can see Anthony's legs getting out of the car. Then they are back in the car talking and only then does Anthony get out. See more »

Quotes

[first lines]
Graham:
It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.
See more »

Crazy Credits

The film's title isn't shown until all of the opening credits are completed. See more »

User Reviews

It had all the modern premier film touches: great shooting, good acting, but a flawed, cheesy script and theme with that annoying ethereal emo music. I was not impressed with the same old racial stereotypes, but they did change them up a bit. Even the black punks in the beginning, who babble on about imaginary racial conspiracies while proving the black negative stereotype correct, felt flat. For instance, the bigoted gun store owner, not a far out stereotype from my experience, would probably put business ahead of bigotry and not tick off his Iranian customers. Though to it's credit it showed everyone being racist to everyone else. There was even a subplot where two undercover cops crash into each other then shoot it out, a dead black the surviving white. The LAPD wants to hang the white survivor out as a scapegoat to the black power mob while the black investigator assigned to the case has serious doubts.One of the saddest scenes was when the black investigator's junkie mother was ranting about how "his people" killed her other criminal carjacking son. Well, technically it was true. But if anyone led to her dead criminal son turning out how he did, it was his worthless junkie mom. In a sad way that is so real, the people who do the most complaining cause the most damage.

Basically, this was a B level melodrama that would have been dynamite in the 60's but in the 2000's, it sounds worn out, exploitative and tinny. But it did try to tackle a serious issue and is probably one of the best of its type. I went back to this because of all the racial tensions created by the media and the black power race baiting mob in these days. The latest racial nonsense like the Oscars are too white really grind my gears, not to mention such rubbish as making a total punk lowlife like Michael Brown into an innocent victim, replete with lies about how he was holding his hands up when he was shot. Compared to all the garbage like I mentioned, this movie was almost documentary and objective. AND IT WON THE Oscars, yet the race baiters like Jada Pinkett seem to forget that. As well as having some good twists.

13 of 17 people found this review helpful.
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